Microsoft has detailed its earnings for the first quarter of its 2024 fiscal year, pointing to a record-breaking Q1 for Xbox gaming revenue, despite a 7% drop in hardware sales.
Over the course of Microsoft’s Q1 2024, which covers 1st July to 30th September, Xbox generated $3.9bn USD in gaming revenue – equating to a 9% year-on-year increase – which the company attributed to strong performance from first-party titles and Game Pass.
Not coincidentally, Xbox’s record-breaking Q1 encompassed the long-awaited launch of Bethesda’s Starfield, which surpassed 10m players within its first few weeks of release – and in an investor call following today’s fiscal report, Microsoft CEO Satyda Nadella confirmed the game provided a significant boost for Game Pass, setting the record at launch for the “most Game Pass subscriptions added on a single day ever” (as per The Verge’s Tom Warren).
All in all, Xbox’s content and services revenue increased by 13%, but that was somewhat offset by hardware performance, where Microsoft had less success – seeing a 7% year-on-year drop in revenue, thanks to reduced console sales.
Microsoft’s Q1 2024 earnings report did not factor in figures from the company’s recently completed $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard, but the impact the long-in-the-works deal has on Xbox should become clearer as it moves into its next fiscal quarter and beyond.
